Make sure to pick up the latest issue of Inside Weddings – on newsstands today – to check out our New Calligraphy letterpress wedding invitations!
New Calligraphy has become incredibly popular with couples looking to add a special flair to their wedding with memorable letterpress wedding invitations that are the perfect blend of traditional elegance and modern whimsy. We’ve featured beautiful New Calligraphy customizations on the blog before, because it’s just so fun to see how brides and grooms make the design their own. The original design features vibrant cardinal red ink with cardinal edge painting on our luxurious 2-ply cotton paper paired with a metallic silver envelope liner.
Thanks so much to Inside Weddings for featuring Bella Figura!
Wow! We are completely in love with this incredible inspiration board posted yesterday on Wedding Nouveau featuring Bella Figura’s letterpress wedding invitations in our Sonnet design. It reminds of us of magic and fairy tales and all things shimmery and pretty. Inspired by the work of acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz, we love the pairing of soft blues, mustardy green and sparkling accents. Thanks so much to Fri at Wedding Nouveau for including Bella Figura!
{Please see original post on Wedding Nouveau for complete photo credits.}
As promised, we have one more fun customization of our Dewdrop letterpress wedding invitation design to share this week. This unique customization, printed for a wedding in Hawaii, makes the most of bright tropical colors perfect for this wedding held on the island of Maui. The letterpress invitation itself features the same vibrant spring green and garden inks of the original design, but plays with pairing our Salzburg script font with the clean lines of a simple sans serif font. The letterpress reply card, printed in punchy shades of papaya and fuchsia, really plays up the tropical feel and sets the stage for a celebration in the Hawaiian islands. Using two different ink colors for the reply card is also a really fun and festive way to work four ink colors into a design and add a personal touch to your letterpress wedding invitations. Have we mentioned before how much we love Dewdrop? Because we really really love seeing how couples make this design their own and getting the opportunity to print so many cool variations.
Previous Dewdrop customizations featured this week….
Custom Square Dewdrop Letterpress Wedding Invitations
Bright Green and Aqua Dewdrop Letterpress Wedding Inviations
In 2009, Dewdrop has become one of our most popular letterpress wedding invitation designs. It has been paired with the most modern of weddings and used for the most elegant and traditional of events. Seeing how couples customize our designs is always exciting, but seeing Dewdrop reinvented over and over has proven especially fun. This version uses the same spring green of the sample design paired with deep pool ink and an envelope lined in pool. By pairing more traditional script and serif fonts together – as opposed to the clean lines of the sans serif fonts of the original design – the look is much more formal and yet still incredibly festive and fun. And we love the addition of a third color for the envelope liner – it’s a great way to introduce a third color unexpectedly. We also love the reply card, printed in 1-color letterpress and giving guests the option to reply for multiple events, which is a great way to save money without sacrificing style. What can we say? We’re in love with Dewdrop and this customization is no exception!
We’ve been loving the recent trend of festive yellow and gray weddings and the opportunity to print these gorgeous letterpress wedding invitations in our Dewdrop design only served to solidify our love for this hot color palette. This customization uses a fun square shape, bright champagne and pewter inks, and even features a cute square reply card that directs guests toward the couple’s website for online replies. We love how personal and fun this invitation suite is and how it reinvents one of our favorite designs from our 2009 collection. Stay tuned for more great Dewdrop letterpress wedding invitation customizations this week!
This cute little letterpress social note – a customization of our Joyful Yarrow design – is perfect as a thank you note or for everyday correspondence. Printed in navy paired with a punch of bright yarrow ink, it’s fun, a little bit unexpected and definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sure to bring a smile to any recipient’s face, we’re in love with fun and fresh letterpress social note and letterpress thank you card designs.
Here at Bella Figura, we love the opportunity to work with couples from all walks of life in designing and printing the letterpress wedding invitations of their dreams. Getting to know our clients is such a joy for us – we love when they share photos of their weddings and then come back to us later for letterpress baby announcements! So we thought we’d share a bit of insight into what makes the team at Bella Figura tick. First up, a little look behind the scenes with Bella Figura Client Coordinator, Tiffany…
Describe your typical day during the week…
6:00 – Alarm goes off. Typically I will hit snooze until 7:00 because I went to sleep WAY too late due to either (a) having been up all night reading whatever latest book has captured my imagination or (b) my dog snoring…she snores REALLY loud!
7:30 – By 7:30 I am showered and out the door way earlier than I need to be…but honestly, mornings are boring to me so I usually just head into the office early rather than sit around killing time.
8:00 – As soon as I sit down I check my email first thing so I can tackle high priority items right away. Sometimes things will pop up – a last minute venue change that a couple wasn’t anticipating or a change in bridal party members – and the sooner I can address such changes, the earlier we can get things taken care of on our end to help make sure our clients are pleased with the pieces we’re printing for them.
10:00 – By now my day is in full swing. Depending on the day it will involve a lot of answering calls and emails, preparing specs for clients to review, proofing text, and working with our designers to get proofs to couples for their review. Every day is different, which is half of the fun.
1:00 – At 1:00 it’s lunchtime which means lunch with the ladies, our time to reflect and talk about the important things in life – food we like, food we eat, food we know we shouldn’t eat, and food we should eat but don’t really want to. You know, we keep it real. Sometimes we talk about some beautiful letterpress wedding invitation set we just printed…but more often than not, we talk about food.
3:00 – Late afternoons can get pretty busy, so I’m often pretty busy working on getting whatever information I can to those brides and grooms who need something. We take great pride in extending the best of customer service, so I like to know I’m leaving the day with a clean slate every night and that I’ve done everything I can for the day before taking off.
6:00 – Six o’clock is quittin’ time around here so I’m typically on my way out the door and preparing myself for having to weave in and out of traffic to get home.
What is your favorite Bella Figura design?
Sonnet. It is just perfect! The design is entirely feminine and sweet and it really conveys the feeling of a celebration of love – I can’t get enough of it.
What are your favorite color trends right now?
I am really into purple and gray right now, and I have seen a lot of couples pairing either amethyst or aubergine ink with pewter for their letterpress invitations. I personally love the softness of lavender and pale gray inks paired together, it’s so feminine and sophisticated – just gorgeous!
What’s your favorite tip for keeping letterpress budget-friendly?
I think putting your money into a really fabulous invitation (2 ply paper, corner rounded, edge painted, calligraphy accents etc.) and then opting to print the reception and reply information right on the invitation is my pick. Sure, it’s less traditional but it’s a great way to save money and cut down on paper consumption. I am a stickler for tradition, but the thought of a heavily embellished knockout invitation that stands alone appeals to me.
If you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation/honeymoon, where would you go, why, and what would you do?
Ireland. It is such a lovely country and the people are incredibly warm and personable. Ireland is home to many of my favorite things – horses, Guinness, and amazing landscapes (not to mention men with fabulous accents!) I am planning a trip there in May of next year and I am so excited!
What are your top 5 prized possessions?
Aside from a letter my grandfather wrote to my grandmother when he was in Europe during WWII, my most valued possessions are my books. My favorites (of my obscenely large collection) are: Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I could not survive knowing I wasn’t able to grab any one of them at a moments notice!
For first time visitors to Syracuse, where are your favorite places to shop, eat, and hang out?
I am a country girl through and through, but I do think Syracuse is a great city to visit. With that said, for me the real beauty of this area lies outside of the city limits in some of the neighboring towns. We have some of the most stunning landscapes around, and nothing makes me happier than to gaze out at miles and miles of pristine farm land occupied by grazing sheep and the patchwork effect of newly planted crops. Central New York has beautiful lakes, quaint towns, lots of outdoor activities and tremendous restaurants. Syracuse itself has some not to miss attractions – don’t miss Dinosaur BBQ for the best ribs EVER! – but I would highly recommend a leisurely drive to Cazenovia or Skaneateles to soak in the beauty of the hills, the trees, and the land, particularly in the autumn months when the foliage is incredible!
Here’s our take on a little inspiration board inspired by all things Tiffany. We picture a beautiful wedding in the hills of Ireland with stacks of old books and other vintage ephemera used for centerpieces, Guinness served in pint glasses that guests could take home as favors, rich purple hues, and a bride in a fabulous flowing dress being whisked away on a horse. And the invitations? Letterpress wedding invitations by Bella Figura in our Sonnet design, naturally.
Bride with horse photo by Emily Porter Photography
Wreath photo by Eleise Theuer
Letterpress reply card by Bella Figura
Ring pillow via The Knot
Centerpieces from Once Wed
Bride with bridesmaid photo by Sweet Monday Photography
Landscape photo via Wallace Travel Group
Guinness from fresh expressions
Bride and groom by Carrie Patterson Photography via Snippet & Ink
Last year we had the pleasure of printing lovely letterpress wedding invitations, escort cards, table numbers and thank you notes for Lisa and her handsome groom Stephen for their Malibu wedding. Today their amazing wedding, held at the Malibu Nature Preserve, is featured one our of absolute favorite wedding blogs, Style Me Pretty. (You can see Abby’s posts here and here.) We are so in love with this beautiful wedding, we just had to share more of the amazing photos from the incredible team at docuvitae and a bit more insight into what made the day so special from the bride herself.
Inspired by the beautiful flowers that grow wild in the California hills in late summer, Lisa dreamed of a lush, magical wedding that celebrated all the beauty of nature and evoked feelings of being lost in a fairy forest. The answer? Many little flower girls dressed in fairy wings, a ceremony in a sycamore grove and silk butterflies on strings. Oh. And a really fabulous dress from Claire Pettibone that was soft, shimmery and ethereal.
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With Labor Day weekend upon us and with it the threat of the long Central New York winter we know is to come looming in the not so far off distance, we can’t help but smile at this pretty, sunshine-inspired letterpress thank you note. A cheerful take on our Estrella letterpress wedding invitation design, it features bright champagne and persimmon inks. We think it’s a lovely ode to long sunny summer days.
Happy long weekend! May your holiday weekend be filled with lots of sunshine and happy smiles.
It’s always really fun for us to customize one of our designs for any occasion a client might be celebrating. Take, for instance, this really pretty petite letterpress baby announcement using our Cartoccio letterpress wedding invitation design. The same size as one of our letterpress reply cards, this sweet little announcement was printed in aubergine ink on our ivory paper. Although we printed this one a while ago it has remained a real favorite of ours – it’s a completely adorable and really special way to welcome a happy new addition to the family!
We printed these festive letterpress invitations for the rehearsal dinner of Jo and Jared for their New York City wedding. In our Buttonpom design, they are festively printed in navy and fuchsia inks and are a bit informal, but a whole lot festive – perfect for a rehearsal dinner celebration! We can think of no better way to invite your friends and family to join you for dinner and merriment than with a fun letterpress rehearsal dinner invitation. These are officially a new favorite!
Our Cartoccio letterpress wedding invitation design has become a fast favorite and it’s easy for us to see why – it is so incredibly chic! This customization is one of our favorites that we’ve recently printed, because it’s so lovely and so luxurious. Printed on our 2-ply ivory paper in 2-color letterpress, this invitation set is an absolute showstopper. Featuring garden and antique gold inks, it’s a look that is modern, but with the all of the subtle formality of a more traditional letterpress invitation design. Paired with fabulous letterpress printed envelopes with beautiful metallic gold liners, this invitation is rich in detail and personality. Even the reply cards are printed on our luxurious 2-ply paper for a finished look that is completely polished. We can’t get enough!
